A CALL TO ACTION IN 76104 Your ZIP Code Should Never Determine How Long You Live.

A CALL TO ACTION IN 76104

Your ZIP Code Should Never Determine How Long You Live. Link:

The Morningside Community’s Fight to Restore Health and Redeem Lives: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/low-life-expectancy-sparks-call-to-action-in-fort-worth-zip-code/252420/

In 2019, a UT Southwestern analysis of Texas health records sounded an alarm that Fort Worth could not afford to ignore: ZIP code 76104 had the lowest estimated life expectancy in Texas—just 66.7 years, more than a decade below the statewide average.

The analysis was based on death records collected from 2005 through 2014. Although the data reflected that period, the deep inequities it revealed continue to demand sustained attention, strategic investment, and measurable action. (utsouthwestern.edu⁠)

This is more than a health statistic.

It is a call to conscience—and a call to action.

Historic neighborhoods throughout 76104, including Morningside, have endured generations of systemic neglect, concentrated poverty, food insecurity, inadequate transportation, limited access to preventive healthcare, and the accumulated effects of toxic stress and unresolved trauma.

In portions of the community, residents have lived without a neighborhood grocery store or pharmacy despite being located near some of Fort Worth’s largest medical institutions. (cbsnews.com⁠, keranews.org⁠)

Under the leadership of Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr., New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church has responded by organizing residents, congregations, healthcare providers, educators, policymakers, and community partners around one urgent conviction:

People should not have to leave their neighborhoods to find the resources they need to live healthy and productive lives.

FROM CRISIS TO COMMUNITY ACTION

New Mount Rose and its partners are advancing practical, neighborhood-based solutions, including:

• The Chancellor Erma Johnson Hadley CommuniVersity Computer Center—establishing New Mount Rose as the Digital Front Door of 76104 and connecting residents with healthcare, education, employment, agricultural, economic, legal, environmental, and spiritual resources.
• Clinic Without Walls: Screen to Redeem 1,000—expanding access to preventive health screenings, medical referrals, patient navigation, and follow-up care.
• Face Your ACE—helping residents understand and confront adverse childhood experiences, toxic stress, and the lifelong effects of unresolved trauma.
• Pain in the Pews—building a network of trauma-informed congregations prepared to recognize pain, respond compassionately, and connect individuals and families with meaningful support.
• Faith in the Farm and the Funkytown Food Forest—increasing access to fresh, healthy food while teaching agriculture, nutrition, environmental stewardship, and self-sufficiency.
• The Big Purple Fridge—moving healthy food from the farm to the family, from the fridge to the fork.

FAST-FORWARD TO 2026

CLINIC WITHOUT WALLS

SCREEN TO REDEEM 1,000

A renewed health partnership between New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church and JPS Health Network would represent a tremendous investment in the health, hope, and future of the Morningside community and the entire 76104 ZIP code.

Through Screen to Redeem 1,000, our goal is to provide at least 1,000 residents with convenient access to evidence-based screenings and connections to continuing medical care.

Screening services should include:

• Blood-pressure screening for hypertension
• Blood-glucose and A1C testing for diabetes
• Mammography for breast cancer
• Pap and HPV testing for cervical cancer
• Colorectal-cancer screening through appropriate stool-based testing or colonoscopy
• PSA blood testing and informed consultation for prostate cancer
• Lung-cancer screening for residents who meet established age, health, and smoking-history criteria
• Medical referrals, patient navigation, and follow-up care through JPS Health Network

The goal is not simply to perform tests. The goal is to make certain that residents with concerning results are connected to physicians, diagnostic services, treatment, and long-term support.

A screening without follow-up is only information.
A screening connected to care can become intervention.
Intervention can save and redeem lives.

PROVEN METHODS FIRST

Screen to Redeem 1,000 should begin with established, evidence-based screening methods—not whole-body MRI examinations for people without symptoms.

Whole-body imaging may reveal incidental findings that lead to additional testing, unnecessary procedures, greater expense, and considerable anxiety without clear evidence that such screening reduces cancer deaths.

Multi-cancer early-detection blood tests may eventually become valuable tools for identifying biological signals associated with several cancers. However, as of 2026, no multi-cancer detection test has been authorized by the FDA for general cancer screening. Important questions remain about false-positive results, overdiagnosis, unnecessary treatment, and whether these tests ultimately reduce cancer deaths. (prevention.cancer.gov⁠, prevention.cancer.gov⁠)

Screen to Redeem 1,000 should consider this emerging technology only after appropriate FDA authorization, the development of sound clinical guidelines, and careful evaluation by our healthcare partners.

THE CALL

We call upon the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, JPS Health Network, hospitals, universities, foundations, businesses, congregations, and community organizations to make 76104 a priority for sustained investment.

We need more than temporary programs.

We need policies, partnerships, infrastructure, accountability, and resources capable of producing measurable and generational change.

We are not shaming.
We are not blaming.
We are not merely complaining.
We are explaining—and we are organizing.

The residents of 76104 do not need outsiders to rescue them. They need committed partners who will respect community leadership, invest in community-designed solutions, and remain at the table until progress can be seen, measured, and sustained.

The crisis is real.

The work has begun.

The time to act is now.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church
2864 Mississippi Avenue
Fort Worth, Texas 76104
www.newmountrose.com⁠

SCREEN 1,000. CONNECT TO CARE. REDEEM LIVES.

We Help As We Heal.
We Are Growing More in 76104.